Roberts, Stabenow advise Perdue on disaster bill implementation

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., today sent Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue a letter urging him to implement the farm programs in the Bipartisan Budget Act in a "timely, transparent and producer-friendly way" but also emphasizing that certain provisions need to be highlighted for famers.

In the letter, the senators said that producers getting payments "should be informed that they are required to purchase two years of federal crop insurance coverage administered by the Risk Management Agency or two years of coverage under the noninsured crop disaster assistance program administered by the FSA."

"Similar to previous disaster programs, producers should be required to purchase buy up coverage above the catastrophic level," the letter said. "Finally, the RMA should continue to work with producers of affected crops to expand and improve crop insurance policies."